DOI: 10.11648/j.history.20261402.12 ISSN: 2376-6719

An Exploratory Quantitative Spatial Analysis of Early Saxon Discursive Identity (250-700 CE)

Robert Duchateau
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Traditional early medieval historiography frequently treats the early Saxons as a homogeneous, migrating ethnic entity. This paper explores this paradigm by conducting an exploratory quantitative textual and spatial analysis of early medieval identity construction, focusing on the maritime networks of the North Sea and the territorial river systems of the Rhine-Meuse delta in Northwest Europe. Utilising 58 systematically coded historical source elements from the digital Corpus Saxonum ante DCC, this study spans Late Antiquity and the core transitional centuries of the Migration Period (250-700 CE). Pearson's chi-squared tests (χ 2 = 49.34, df = 4, N = 58, p <.001, V =.65) indicate a statistically significant chronological correlation within this specific dataset: the early discursive label 'Raider' (250-400 CE) systematically co-occurs with maritime settings, giving way to the sedentary, territorial label 'Inhabitant' (550-700 CE) in inland descriptions. A two-sample F -test performed on database-validated geographic coordinates from certified gazetteers confirms an overall geographical anisotropy for the total sample ( F (57, 57) = 2.30, p =.001), indicating an unequal spatial dispersion of the textual mentions across the European littoral. Given the limited size of the dataset, these statistical configurations are treated as heuristic trends within this compiled corpus rather than definitive proof. The results suggest that the spatial-temporal distribution of the ethnonym in the text fragments aligns with shifting regional friction boundaries and administrative rhetoric, offering a provisional, interdisciplinary framework for quantitative historiography.

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